by The Vaan Group

We're The Vaan Group, a small digital agency based in Brooklyn. We <3 Shopify (belong to the Shopify Experts program) and were selected for the Shopify Partners Studio in NYC 2016. In this document, we're giving you insight into the tools and strategies that we've learned, refined and employed over the years and during our time in the studio.

The problem: branding in a template world

Shopify’s theme marketplace is second to none in terms of providing beautiful, flexible, and powerful out-of-the-box themes. But with Shopify growing at a faster pace than themes are being generated - now hosting over 275,000 stores - a branding problem has arisen. Branding is a quintessential part of an ecommerce store and a key conversion driver. So how do you stand out when thousands of other websites are using the same template? And how do you guarantee that your online store accurately embodies your brand and its values?

How brand affects conversions infographic

The solution: custom theme design

Shopify boasts one of the most flexible front-end design platforms using a modular, easy to markup framework based on the liquid language called Timber. In lay speak: there are very few limitations to designing a theme on Shopify - it’s a blank digital canvas with no appreciable design limitations. So how do you impart brand on an ecommerce store where you can do anything? Here's how:

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0832/4449/t/1/assets/juisi-cold-pressure-1.jpg?3951399380168204742

Custom illustration for JUISI process. See full website.

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https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/b64312e7-061e-4067-b2e8-155328b9937d/gTk1hHQOQ0Wu9jiv586h_Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 6.07.00 PM.png

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The problem: scaling your marketing efforts

Digital marketing is a process of trial and error. Experienced digital marketers can limit the amount of trials to get results. There are any number of avenues to take: SEM, SMM, CM, email marketing and countless other acroynms. Where do you spend the money, how do you maximize the budget, and what works? To do well, you have to give attention to all of them.

The solution: marketing automation

So what is Marketing Automation? According to Wikipedia it’s defined as:

Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks

In fewer words: Create rules around user behavior that trigger marketing actions.